Silent Era - Chapter 2
Chapter 2
As the beloved pet of Lin Heng, the family’s most beloved, Karen is undoubtedly the darling of everyone in the family.
Karen goes for a walk twice a day and visits Yuehu Sculpture Park in Songjiang District once a week. If Lin Heng doesn’t take her for less than three of those outings, she’ll freak out.
In the entire family, she’s the only creature Lin Heng loves so much.
Bai Sihuan is truly honored to share a bath with her.
The first-floor bathroom is spartan, with few ornaments. The vases aren’t exactly antiques, the mirror is a round one inlaid with Swarovski crystals, and the paintings on the wall are worth less than a few hundred thousand yuan.
I heard that Cheng Sutang’s bathroom is filled with valuable antiques: vases from the Tang Dynasty, mirrors used by imperial concubines from the Qing Dynasty, and paintings from the Song Dynasty personally inscribed in the Slender Gold script.
The bathroom on the first floor was a place Cheng Sutang never set foot in. Normally, it was only used to bathe the dog, but now, there was also Bai Sihuan.
Karen was in the large square bathtub, coaxed into applying shower gel by two servants. Bai Sihuan soaked in the round tub behind a screen. The water, sprinkled with bath powder, was a pale blue, with dried flower petals floating on the surface.
The dog barked in the large bathtub behind the screen. Looking over the screen, one could just see the oil painting hanging on the wall.
Bai Sihuan looked down at his open palm, which still held the peanuts Lin Siying had given him.
“Do you eat peanuts in the bath at your house?” Lin Heng walked in around the screen, asking a question that left him at a loss. He felt awkward, not knowing whether to eat or hold the peanuts in his hand.
Lin Heng snatched the peanuts from his hand and tossed them into the trash can, then placed the fruit plate on the wooden board beside the bathtub. “You should eat this in the bath.”
The plate was neatly arranged with sliced bananas, strawberries, and watermelon flesh.
Bai Sihuan didn’t move.
Lin Heng said unhappily, “Help yourself. Do you still need me to feed you?”
Bai Sihuan reached out and picked up a piece of watermelon flesh. In his mind, watermelon at 2.4 yuan per pound was the cheapest fruit in the summer and the one they ate most often. Bananas at 2.6 yuan per pound were only eaten occasionally, and they rarely touched the strawberries that cost only a dozen yuan a small box in the supermarket.
Out of courtesy, he only dared to eat the cheapest fruit first.
This watermelon was completely different from what he usually ate; it had a unique sweetness.
Lin Heng leaned over and asked, “Is it delicious?”
Bai Sihuan nodded, swallowed a mouthful of watermelon, and timidly asked, “Where…where did you buy it?”
He had no idea how hard it was to get the black-skinned watermelon, which is only grown in Hokkaido, Japan. He just wanted to let his mother and brother try something as delicious as this.
His question amused Lin Heng: “Buy whatever you want. It’s always available whenever you want.”
Bai Sihuan didn’t dare ask any more questions. Seeing that he hadn’t touched anything else, Lin Heng let him continue with the banana and strawberry.
This time, Bai Sihuan felt a little bolder and picked up a piece of strawberry.
Lin Heng stood up, looked down at him, and asked, “What’s your name?”
Bai Sihuan swallowed the strawberry, his lips red from chewing it: “Bai Sihuan.”
Lin Heng sneered, “Even the mistress’s name is so flirty.”
Bai Sihuan’s face froze at this, and he felt like a thorn in his heart.
He wasn’t entirely sure what Lin Heng meant by “mistress.” But from the moment he walked in and saw Cheng Sutang, recalled his mother’s past complaints to him, and met their entire family, including Lin Siying, who was several years older than him, he seemed to understand that he was a shady person, and his mother was also a shady mother.
Lin Heng didn’t hold back, exposing Bai Sihuan’s identity even more bluntly than his own mother had.
Bai Sihuan withdrew his hand back into the bathtub, no longer eating the fruit Lin Heng had offered him. He curled up in the tub, head bowed, hiding the emotions that had slipped through his mind.
“Do you know why my dad asked you to come back?” Lin Heng, oblivious to Bai Sihuan’s erratic mood, continued his arrogant pronouncement. “Because you’re a son, and sons can’t be raised outside. If you were a daughter, my dad wouldn’t care about your life or death. But of course, letting you live here is the most we can do. Don’t expect our family to accept you.”
A bite of candy, then a slap. Years later, Bai Sihuan realized that this was Lin Heng’s way of treating people. Or, more accurately, his way of treating him.
A son could not be left outside to be raised.
This was the only Lin family rule where Cheng Sutang would yield to Lin Huan, and it was precisely because of this rule that Lin Huan dared to take the first-and-last step with Cheng Sutang.
Two days later, Bai Sihuan finally met his biological father, Lin Huan, whom he had never met.
Lin Huan, who had boldly taken him home without Cheng Sutang’s knowledge, didn’t show much enthusiasm when he met him. He simply touched his hand and said, “You’re already this old? Okay, okay, you can live here peacefully from now on. If you need money, ask your Aunt Cheng for it. If your Aunt Cheng is rarely home, you can ask Old Pei for it. Just tell them about food and drink.”
After those two words, Bai Sihuan didn’t see his father again for at least two months.
As Lin Heng had said, the Lin family had done their utmost to bring him back, though he still wasn’t allowed to eat or drink. He ate with the housekeeper and servants on weekdays, still wearing the clothes he’d brought from home.
He didn’t want to stay here, and he’d expressed his desire to go home several times, but the housekeeper and servants ignored him. Cheng Sutang, however, had hinted to him from a distance, “If you really want to go home, can’t you just go on your own? Don’t you recognize your way around?”
Bai Sihuan had once ventured out on his own, dazzled by the bustling traffic and vibrant lights of this bustling area. He truly couldn’t find his way. He asked several passersby where the old alley was. Locals said there were so many alleys in Shanghai, and several were famous, and they could name a few. But no one knew the old alley Bai Sihuan was talking about.
He never made it back home, and he even got lost. Lin Siying eventually found him on the street and brought him back.
That night, Lin Heng, who had been reluctant to start dinner, rolled his eyes when he saw someone return and said, “You’re always causing trouble.”
Bai Sihuan shrank back, wanting to go back to his room. Lin Siying smiled and pulled him aside, saying, “Mom’s not here today. Let’s eat together.”
Bai Sihuan was stunned by this grand invitation and followed Lin Siying, hoping to sit next to her.
Unexpectedly, Lin Siying sat next to Lin Xianyan, leaving no room for him.
Seeing him awkwardly froze next to Lin Siying, Lin Heng suddenly became furious. He patted the seat next to him and said, “Sit here.”
Bai Sihuan reluctantly moved over and sat next to Lin Heng, feeling uneasy throughout the meal.
After the holiday, the Lin family completed the transfer procedures, and Bai Sihuan and Lin Heng began attending the same middle school. He was in the second year of junior high, and Lin Heng was in the first.
Lin Siying was studying in the capital, and after the holidays, he returned to school, leaving Bai Sihuan heartbroken.
This older brother was the only person in his family who had ever given him warmth. He still remembered the night Lin Siying took him home. He stroked his head and said, “Your name and mine are proof of the love your mother and father once shared. Siying, Sihuan, you see, we are brothers.”
Thinking of this, Bai Sihuan secretly wiped away a tear. The only family member he could rely on was gone, and he could only feel his reluctance in secret.
On the eve of school starting, Cheng Sutang kindly gave Bai Sihuan a bicycle so he could ride it to and from school. Lin Heng had a private car, and Cheng Sutang didn’t like others sharing a car with him.
Before Lin Heng left, the servants would personally apply caviar skincare to him. In Bai Sihuan’s eyes, just as gold and jewels require constant care, Lin Heng received this meticulous care from childhood, ensuring his eternal brilliance and glittering brilliance.
The school wasn’t far away, and Bai Sihuan would chase the car that picked up Lin Heng a few times before leaving.
Bai Sihuan had naively thought that if the car would even visit the old alleys once, he would memorize the way home.
But no one would ever want to go to such a place, let alone a precious car that was specifically designed to escort a precious jewel like Lin Heng. The place Bai Sihuan had come to was a forgotten corner of the world, where the people, with their mediocre lives and powerless fate, gathered and took root, never sprouting, only rotting.
Bai Sihuan probably didn’t realize how many people envied him to the point of madness, how many people wanted to have the same opportunity as him. But he wanted to return to that quiet soil, a withered seedling that would never sprout.
The new school was completely different from the old one, and Bai Sihuan expected to feel out of place. Apart from studying in class and going home after class, he had little interaction with his classmates. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t make any friends.
The food in the cafeteria was incredibly expensive, and he never asked his “family” for money. Lin Huan simply said he needed money and asked Aunt Cheng for it, but she herself never gave him a penny. Cheng Sutang naturally wouldn’t give Bai Sihuan any money. All his savings consisted of the fifty yuan his mother had given him when he left home, and a card Lin Siying had given him before she left.
He didn’t know how to use that card, and fifty yuan wasn’t enough for a single meal in the cafeteria. So one morning, he could only buy a steamed bun and split it in two, eating one for breakfast and one for lunch.
He thought he could go home for dinner, but when he got home, the servants hadn’t left any food for him, assuming he’d eaten at school like Lin Heng.
He didn’t dare say anything, and from then on, he split his bun into three portions, one for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for dinner. While his classmates in the cafeteria ate fish and meat every meal, Bai Sihuan, fearing embarrassment, never ate steamed buns there. He only dared to wait until he was alone in the classroom before he could take out his carefully hidden buns.
Once, he fainted in the classroom and was taken to the school hospital. They gave him an IV drip and said he had low bl00d sugar, malnutrition, and a host of other ailments.
Who were his family members? After asking his homeroom teacher, they learned that his guardian was Lin Huan, and that he and Lin Heng were brothers from the same father.
Everyone was stunned.
When he woke up, Lin Heng stood beside him, glaring at him coldly: “Don’t you know how to ask for money when you don’t have it? You can’t even afford to eat, and you don’t know how to ask?”
Lin Heng’s tone always made Bai Sihuan feel like he was blaming him.
This cherished jewel in the palm of someone’s hand, of course, couldn’t understand the inherent inferiority and timidity that permeated Bai Sihuan, who came from a poor family.
He would never, ever, understand the feeling of helplessness and panic when asking for food from his “family” only to be met with scorn and indifference.
Bai Sihuan pulled the covers over his head, shielding himself from the piercing glare of the man before him. He felt that the quilt was his home, even if only for a short while.
Lin Heng sighed anxiously. He wouldn’t say a word when scolded, only curled up like a woman.
Bai Sihuan listened to his scolding without raising his head from the covers. The white in front of his eyes gradually blurred. He blinked back his tears, gritting his teeth to endure every moment that followed.
Bai Sihuan knew that no one here wanted him. He simply couldn’t understand why these people, if they disliked him so much, would bring him here and subject him to such punishment.
Lin Heng told Bai Sihuan to eat with him in the cafeteria every day. When Bai Sihuan refused to come, Lin Heng had his henchmen carry him there.
At the dinner table, Bai Sihuan sat across from Lin Heng, with the school beauty sitting next to him.
Every day, beautiful girls would try to dine with Lin Heng, but the school beauty always got there first. Over time, no one had the courage to take his place.
Aside from Cheng Sutang, Bai Sihuan had never met a woman who wore makeup, and he never expected the girl in junior high to be wearing it.
He couldn’t tell the bare makeup on the school beauty’s face, but he was simply amazed at how someone around him could be as beautiful as the stars on TV.
“Why does he keep looking at me?” The school beauty, who always tried to find something to talk about with Lin Heng, noticed Bai Sihuan’s gaze and, as if deliberately trying to get Lin Heng’s attention, brought it up.
Lin Heng, who usually didn’t pay much attention to the school beauty, put down his chopsticks and asked Bai Sihuan, “Why do you keep looking at her?”
Bai Sihuan lowered his head as if admitting his mistake and ate quietly.
Lin Heng wasn’t about to let him go: “I’m asking you a question.”
Bai Sihuan whispered, “She’s beautiful.”
Being called beautiful by someone like that made the school beauty feel disgusted, her expression of disdain palpable.
Lin Heng sneered and said, “Okay, you’ve learned to speak your mind. You’ve made progress.”
He took a piece of pork ribs from his bowl and threw it to Bai Sihuan, asking him to eat more, just like he usually threw bones to Karen as a reward, almost patting her head and saying, “Good boy.”
The school beauty flirted with Lin Heng: “Why are you only giving him food and not me? I don’t want to eat anymore.”
Lin Heng didn’t even look at her: “If you don’t want to eat, just leave. Please stay?”
The school beauty snorted twice in a feigned annoyance, but continued to eat next to him.
Once, when Lin Heng arrived late, Bai Sihuan didn’t dare to pick up his chopsticks first, so he sat at his seat and waited for him.
The school beauty arrived first. Seeing that no one was around, she slammed her lunch box down on the table and said to Bai Sihuan in a warning tone, “Aren’t you tired of sitting with us every day? Can’t you be more self-aware? Who do you think you are? Sitting here eating with us every day. Do you have any sense?”
Bai Sihuan tried to explain, “It’s because…”
The girl was sharp-tongued, not giving him a chance to explain. “Who cares why? Can’t you see that Lin Heng and I both dislike you? This is my and his place. Why do you sit in ours? This society has a hierarchy, don’t you know? Not every position is yours!” Noticing the approaching footsteps, the school beauty suddenly smiled and said to the person behind Bai Sihuan, “Lin Heng, you’re here? Come and tell him to stop sitting here. This is clearly ours…”
Before she could finish her words, the lunch box on the table had flipped upside down on her head, sauce dripping down her long black hair.
Lin Heng seemed to be responding to her question about “social class” and said expressionlessly: “Let him go? Just because of you? Do you know that he is my brother?”